The University of XXXX is my first choice for graduate study towards the MLIS Degree for a variety of reasons including the fact that I live in XXXX. I also very much admire your creative curriculum and the way in which it is inspired by and interwoven with the strength and creativity of your University in the Humanities and Social Sciences generally speaking. In particular, I very much admire the work of XXXX as an advocate of the LGBTQ community. As I see it, Dr. XXXX stands as a model for everyone in MLIS—and those who, like myself, aspire to a career in MLIS—in the way in which she engages with social justice issues at the center of her professional concerns. I see this type of dedication to making the world a better place to live for all of us, particularly historically marginalized and exploited groups, as fundamental to our mission in Library Science, providing progressive information and resources to library clients online as well as in brick-and-mortar institutions. While I volunteered at one point at my local library and very much enjoyed the experience, it is the world of online libraries that I find most exciting and where I hope to put my MLIS Degree from the University of XXXX to work. If accepted to your program, I intend to focus on your general track in Archival Studies and Special Collections Librarianship.

I am convinced that my undergraduate major of Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on the Humanities and Social Sciences, along with a minor in Women’s Studies, have provided me with an excellent, diverse, and thoroughly humanistic foundation for graduate study towards the MLIS Degree and that my studies so far will empower and inspire me to excel as a student in your program who is especially engaged with many of the burning social issues of our day that are most relevant to library studies, increasingly so in our age of information technology

Another reason why I feel strongly that I am a good fit with Library and Information Science is that I have long developed a great passion for and subsequent prowess in all things having to do with computer and internet technology. My extensive travels as a military spouse have helped me to develop and refine a sense of identity as an international citizen with a great curiosity for cultural challenges. The maturity and intensity of this curiosity, I am convinced, will enable me to make important contributions to our field as a library professional. My experience earning my minor in Women's Studies is especially close to my heart as I have always had an interest in feminism and these studies gave me a lot of great insight into my own life. Women and girls need survival strategies and resources that are tailored to their challenges. Thus, as a library professional, I hope to develop a special interest and focus on providing these resources to women and girls, tools that help them to honor and value themselves and to have the fullest life possible characterized by the highest level of autonomy and creativity that they can achieve. My choice of an MLIS program for graduate school was further reinforced when I learned how the beginnings of the ALA were very much tied to its roots in the feminist movement. I see the advancement of human—and also gender—rights as fundamental to the mission of the librarian and this is consonant with the way in which the ALA supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the established rights to information, knowledge, and free expression. Librarians help to protect these human rights by developing diverse collections, programs and services; promoting literacy; and preserving cultural and historical records and it is to this cause that I wish to devote my professional life.

Ideally I would LOVE to be able to take part in this internship: XXXX. I originally went to college planning to major in art and photography but changed course so as to achieve a broader understanding of the humanities and social sciences. I want to spend my professional lifetime working with archives, managing collections, and the digitization of collections. I want to preserve history so that more and more young people will have more and more resources to study the humanities in the future. I look forward to learning everything that I can about e-library automation and archiving and the cutting-edge technological advances in information storage and access that are unfolding before our eyes in leaps and bounds. I want to describe, catalogue, analyze, exhibit, and enhance the value of objects and collections for the benefit of research and the public interest.

I have been fortunate enough to live in Europe and travel to many different places as an Air Force spouse. My husband is Vietnamese-American and we have also been to Vietnam. I see my vast exposure to all things South East Asian as another complimentary asset for a library professional. Everywhere that I have gone I have been to the libraries and museums and I look forward to sharing some of my stories with the great diversity of other graduate students in your program, from all over the world. I finished my undergraduate studies in 2010 and since that time I have been working with our Wounded Warriors, assisting them in a variety of areas. I am pleased that I have done so and I have learned many valuable things caring for our veterans; but I now feel strongly that it is time for me to pursue my passion. It is time for the MLIS Degree.